Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Blessed Buddha once spoke on these 4 invariable & fixed laws:There are 4 things, Bhikkhus & Friends, which nobody can change,
neither recluse, nor priest, nor god, nor devil, nor anyone at all
in this or any other universe. What are these 4 things?
1: That what is subject to decay, may not decay...
2: That what is subject to sickness, may not fall sick...
3: That what is subject to death, may not die... &
4: That those evil, immoral, impure, terrible, and pain-producing
actions, which ever and again lead to rebirth, ageing, and death,
may not bring results, may not produce their inevitable fruits...
These four things, Bhikkhus & Friends, neither recluses, priests,
divine beings, neither gods, nor devils, nor anyone in this or any
other multiverse can ever stop... Therefore: So be it...

The Blessed Buddha once spoke on these 4 invariable & fixed laws:There are 4 things, Bhikkhus & Friends, which nobody can change,
neither recluse, nor priest, nor god, nor devil, nor anyone at all
in this or any other universe. What are these 4 things?
1: That what is subject to decay, may not decay...
2: That what is subject to sickness, may not fall sick...
3: That what is subject to death, may not die... &
4: That those evil, immoral, impure, terrible, and pain-producing
actions, which ever and again lead to rebirth, ageing, and death,
may not bring results, may not produce their inevitable fruits...
These four things, Bhikkhus & Friends, neither recluses, priests,
divine beings, neither gods, nor devils, nor anyone in this or any
other multiverse can ever stop... Therefore: So be it...

Siddhartha Gautama lived in the present-day border area between India and Nepal in the 6th century before Christ; his exact birth date is unknown. Because the life of the historical Buddha is inseparable from legend, the following text is not meant to be a historically exact biography, but a short life story based on what has been passed down by generations. The dates are based on present day historians' mainstream view.

563 BC - Birth

Siddhartha Gautama is born in Lumbini, near the Nepalese-Indian border to his father, King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya tribe, and his mother, Queen Mayadevi. The father gives his son the name of Siddhartha (=the one who obtains success and prosperity), his second name is Gautama (=name of the clan).

Seers predict that Siddhartha will either become a Universal Monarch or a Buddha. Asita, the wisest of the seers, is sure that he will become a Buddha (=one who has supreme knowledge). His mother dies seven days after the birth.

563-547 BC

Siddhartha spends his childhood in the palace of his father at Kapilavastu, Southern Nepal, where he is raised by his aunt Mahaprajapati until the age of seven. In his early childhood, during a ploughing ceremony, Siddhartha makes his first unprecedented spiritual experience, where in the course of meditation he develops the first jhana (=meditative absorption) through concentration.

As a young boy he learns the skills of a warrior, including the technical and athletic skills of man-to-man fight. Siddhartha is trained in spiritual disciplines and becomes proficient in the art of archery.

547 BC

At the early age of sixteen, he marries his beautiful cousin Princess Yasodhara, who is of equal age.

547-533 BC

The young prince spends thirteen more years together with his wife in the royal court of his father. Three palaces are built for him, one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the rainy season. Siddhartha enjoys the lavish court life while his father is trying to screen him from all troubles and worries. A son is born while Siddhartha is in his late twenties.

533 BC - The Four Sights

Despite of the amenities of life, Siddhartha is not satisfied with the mere enjoyment of fleeting pleasures due to his inquiring and contemplative nature. One day, he leaves the palace for an excursion and there he encounters what so far has been purposely veiled from him:

He sees a decrepit old man, a diseased person, a corpse being cremated, and a sadhu (=holy man, hermit). Siddhartha realises that there is old age, sickness, and death, and that people ultimately have little control over their lives. The fourth sight provides the inspiration that leads to a dramatic change in his life.

533 BC - The Renunciation

In the night of his 29th birthday, Siddhartha gives up his life as a prince and secretly leaves the court while everyone is asleep. He travels far and crosses the river Anoma, where he shaves his hair and hands over his princely garments to his groom Channa, with instructions to return them to the palace.

533-528 BC

The Bodhisattva (=future Buddha), who once lived in luxury, becomes a penniless and homeless wanderer. He leads a life of self-mortification and spiritual study, becomes first a disciple of several then famous Brahman teachers, and later attracts his own disciples.

After a long and exhausting period of searching and self-mortification, he finally becomes disillusioned with the Indian caste system, Hindu asceticism, and the religious doctrines of his time. He gives up the ascetic life and loses all of his disciples as a result. Nevertheless, he continues his search for truth through the practice of meditation.

April/May 528 BC - Enlightenment

While meditating under a Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya, south of Gaya in the state of Bihar, India, the Bodhisattva experiences the Great Enlightenment, which reveals to him the way of salvation from suffering. He spends seven weeks meditating in the vicinity of the site of the Bodhi tree and attains the status of a fully realised Buddha at the age of 35.

June/July 528 BC - First Sermon

Buddha finds his former five disciples in Benares. In his first sermon he teaches them what will become the gist of Buddhism. Upon hearing it, one of the disciples instantly attains the status of an arhat (=one with enlightened wisdom). This event marks the beginning of the Buddhist teaching and his disciples become the first five members of the sangha (=Buddhist order).

528-527 BC

During a short period of time, Buddha establishes a great reputation in western Hindustan by converting thousands of people to the dhamma (=the Buddhist teaching). People hear the dhamma delivered either by himself, or by the monks of his order. During this time he delivers the fire sermon.

March 527 BC

The Buddha briefly returns to the palace of his father to convert the royal family and ordains many of the Sakya tribe.

523 BC

Four years later Siddhartha's father, King Suddhodana, dies. Buddha returns to the palace and Mahaprajapati, where Buddha's aunt -upon meeting Buddha- becomes the first woman to ordain, despite of the protest of some contemporaries. From this moment on women were admitted to the sangha. According to Indian tradition, however, they were separated and under the authority of male monks.

523-483 BC

In the 45 years following his enlightenment, Buddha travels around Northern India to teach the tenets of Buddhism. He is extremely successful and attracts first thousands, then ten thousands, and later hundred thousands of people from all walks of life, who voluntarily decide to follow his teachings, the dhamma. During the monsoon, when travelling becomes difficult due to the weather, Buddha and his close followers interrupt their journey. During these month, monks, as well as laypeople, receive the teachings at a site selected for retreat. One such site is Sravasti in Nepal, which has become very famous since then.

Buddha's success does not only attract admirers, but also provokes envy and ill will. Several attempts are made on his life, but all of them fail. Although he is being criticised and defamed, this does not affect the popularity of his teaching.

483 BC - Death and Pari-Nirvana

Having achieved the goal of spreading the teaching to the greatest number of people, Buddha dies at the age of eighty years, as a result of food poisoning. He dies in a forest near Kusinagara, Nepal, in the company of his followers reclining on a bed where he speaks his last words: "All compounded things are ephemeral; work diligently on your salvation." With these words on his lips, he passes into the state of Pari-Nirvana.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was living at Sāvatthī, in the
palace of Migāra's mother, in the Eastern Park, together with many very well
known elder disciples: Venerable Sāriputta, Mahā-Moggallāna, Mahā-Kassapa,
Mahā-Kaccāyana, Mahā-Kotthita, Mahā-Kappina, Mahā-Cunda, Ven. Anuruddha,
Revata, & Ānanda. These elder bhikkhus were teaching & instructing the new
bhikkhus, who thus achieved successively higher distinction & discrimination!
Then, surveying this silent Bhikkhu-Sangha, he addressed the bhikkhus thus:
I am content, bhikkhus, with this progress; I am content at heart, bhikkhus,
with this development. Therefore, strive still more strenuously to attain the
unattained, to achieve the unachieved, to realize the unrealized. I will stay...
Ānāpānasati Sutta. Majjhima Nikāya 118Full text & explanation here:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/pdfs/anapanasati.pdf

The dear companion can be the proximate cause for Mutual Joy, where one
rejoices in another being's success... One thus rejoicing in others fortune
is called a 'boon companion', for he is constantly glad: He laughs first and
speaks afterward! So he should be the first to be pervaded with gladness.
Or on seeing a dear person being happy, cheerful and glad, mutual joy can
be aroused thus: 'See this being is indeed glad! How good, how excellent!'Just as one would be glad at seeing a dear and beloved person very happy,
exactly so does one pervade all other beings in all directions with mutual joy...
Rejoicing mutual joy can also be aroused by remembering other's happiness
in the past and recollecting the elated joy aspect in this way: 'In the past he
had great wealth, a great following and he was always glad'. Or mutual joy
can be aroused by apprehending the future glad aspect of his in this way:
'In the future he will again enjoy similar success and will go about in gold
palanquins, on the backs of elephants or on horseback'. Having thus aroused
mutual joy regarding a dear person, one can then direct the very same feeling
successively towards a neutral one, and gradually towards any hostile person.Vbh 274, Vism I 316

Comments:
Mutual joy causes Contentment! No mutual joy thus entails Discontentment!Therefore: If being generally dissatisfied, then be happy over other's gains ;-)Secondly: Mutual joy causes all envy and jealousy to evaporate into equanimity!

Life, personality, pleasure, pain, endures joined in one conscious moment,
that flicks by... Whether such ceased clusters of clinging are those of a
dead or alive does not matter, they are all alike, momentarily gone never
to return... No world is born and appears as manifest, if consciousness is
not produced! Only when consciousness is present, does the world emerge!
When consciousness momentarily dissolves, the world is dead and vanished!
So both the being & the world starts and ends within each conscious moment!
Both are reborn millions of times per second! Not only at conventional death..This is how death also should be recollected, as the shortness of the moment.
This is the highest sense this concept of conscious existence ever will allow...!
(Source: Vism I 238, Nd I 42)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Ancient Elders explained:As one repeats, develops & cultivates the understanding that appearance
is terror one cannot find any asylum, any safe shelter, any place to go to,
since there is no safe haven in any kind of becoming, generation, destiny,
station, or abode. Nowhere whatsoever - except in Nibbāna - is there even
one single stable and lasting formation or construction, that one can place
hope in or hold on to: Since as the Blessed Buddha succinctly pointed out:
The 3 kinds of becoming appear like charcoal pits full of glowing coals, the
four primary elements like hideous venomous snakes (SN IV 174), the five
clusters like murderers with raised weapons (SN IV 174), the six internal
sense sources like an empty village, the six kind of external sense objectslike village-raiding robbers (SN IV 174-75), the 7 stations of consciousnessand the nine abodes of beings as if burning, blazing and glowing with the 11
fires (see SN IV 19). Thus do all phenomena appear as a huge mass of dangerdestitute of substance or satisfaction, like a tumour, or a disease, or a dart,
a calamity, a distressing affliction, like a knot of suffering (see MN I 436)!
Vism 647

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Blessed Buddha once said:It is not easy, Bhikkhus & Friends, to find even a single living being that
during this immensely long round of rebirths has not at least 10 times
been your mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter!
How is this possible? Inconceivable, Bhikkhus and Friends, is the beginning
of this Samsaric round; not to be discovered is the ultimate first beginning
of individual beings who, blinded by ignorance and all obsessed by craving,
are hurrying and hastening through this round of rebirths!
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikāya. Book SN 15:14-19

On Samsara: The Dreadful Round:Long is Samsara for the simpleton, who does not know the Dhamma.
Long is the night for one, who keeps awake.
Long is the mile for one, who is tired.
Long is the rebirth round for one, who is unaware of the true Dhamma.
Dhammapada 60

Friday, August 26, 2011

Is consciousness moving at death to the next life?No! Since consciousness arise & cease right here, it cannot move anywhere!
It is not continuous, but contiguous discrete mental states as pearls on a string.
The prior moment of consciousness contains the properties that conditions the
arising of the next moment of consciousness! These inherent properties are
mainly craving for (conscious) sensing & craving for becoming anew into being.
If these cravings are present in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness,
then the next moment of consciousness will arise immediately after the death,
but now in another location and body, which qualities (or lack of) also are all
conditioned by properties within the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness…

Example:If ignorance is dominant in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness,
then an animal rebirth is to be expected. If harmonious peace and settled
mental calmness based on a long life of doing good are the dominant factors
right in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness, then a divine deva rebirth
is to be expected. If anger, hostile enmity, envy and hate are dominant in the
rebirth-linking moment of consciousness, a rebirth in hell is to be expected...
So what actually passes on is CAUSALITY: That is conditioning factors of
mental forces! Nothing more! No form, feeling, perception, construction, or
consciousness passes on, or can ever endure from one moment to the next...
No "Self, I, Me, Body, Identity, or Ego" passes on, because they never really
existed in the first place, so how can they ever then pass on?!?

The classic example is the 2 candles:
Candle A is in flame. (=Dying individuality)
This is then used to light or ignite Candle B (=Reborn individuality).
By this very ignition the flame of Candle A is extinguished…
Only candle B is now burning: What now was passed on !-?-!
Is the flame of Candle B now the SAME, as the flame of Candle A?
Not so. Candle B burns by its own flame, but it was turned on by flame A!
Is the flame of Candle B now DIFFERENT from the flame of Candle A?
Not really so either. Since Candle B started burning from the flame A!

What is Reborn?: Neither the SAME individuality, nor ANOTHER!What am ‘I’ & ‘Person’?: Neither the SAME nor ANOTHER!
Not a fixed entity, but a streaming process of ever renewed
arisings and ceasings of impersonal mental and physical states…
Just moments of name-&-form passes on!

In brevity:Question: What passes on at death?
Answer: The forces or streams of: Ignorance, Greed, and Hate,
and derivatives thereof, passes on at death and also in every
moment of this life! One is reborn not only at death, but at
every conscious moment of this endless life cycle itself also...
Re-arising rebirth occurs billions of times per second!
Neither as the same, nor as another...